The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats soccer team and senior Merritt Monger have some pretty particular set goals for this season.

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By Robert Holder

Oakridger - Oak Ridge, TN

By Robert Holder

Posted Oct. 18, 2012 at 5:00 AM

By Robert Holder

Posted Oct. 18, 2012 at 5:00 AM

OAK RIDGE

The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats soccer team and senior Merritt Monger have some pretty particular set goals for this season.

“Our goal is to put them away early and have the rest of the night to take a little bit of a break,” Monger said.

The Lady SoccerCats moved another step closer Tuesday night to their ultimate goal of the state tournament with their second fastest goal of the season, less than 40 seconds into the game when Monger got her first of four goals as Oak Ridge defeated Powell 7-1.

“You have to win on Tuesdays to get to Thursdays and you win championships on Thursdays,” coach Tom Gorman said. “Tonight was just that first step on getting to where we want to go in the district tournament at least.”

Monger’s second four goal game of her career saw her first two scores come within the first 10 minutes. After Grace Welsh drew the Powell goalkeeper out and slipped it back into Monger on the first, Kaci Mitchell got her second assist in as many games five minutes later as Monger did a spin to regain control of the ball and rocketed it into the top left corner of the goal.

Monger, the team’s leader in goals then did her best Team USA impression on a pair of creative goals in the 34th and 47th minutes as she hit a pair of headers to make it 4-1.

“I pulled an Abby Wambach,” Monger said. “I think we all have the mindset of going to state so we are all just working as hard as we possibly can to get there.”

The creativity didn’t stop there for the Lady ‘Cats (17-1-1). In the 56th minute, Alexis Gonzalez took a free kick from outside the box. Mariealaina “Mini” Bouchard ran over the top of it to draw the defense. Gonzalez played a shot in that was deflected to Bouchard as she was racing toward the goal unabated. With the Lady Panthers defense advancing toward her, Bouchard played a soft pass back into the middle where Peyton McCollum pushed into the back of the net.

Oak Ridge finished off Powell with goals in the 63rd minute from Sarah Nickle and the 76th minute from Keekee Goins with an assist by Chloe White.

Oak Ridge earned a berth in the Region 2-AAA tournament and can claim a home game with a win today against Hardin Valley. Kickoff is at 5:30 p.m. at Pro2Serve Soccer Complex at ORHS.